It’s a melee oriented Metroidvania. Think Ori And The Blind Forest but with more insects and inexplicable frilly faux-Victorian edifices, and less pokey combat. You could play it on a SNES pad if you wanted to. I got to 100% on it back when using a cheap wireless keyboard from my couch.

I don’t know about you, but Hollow Knight’s main contribution to my household is that my wife and I still call any filigree wrought ironwork benches we see “save points.”